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RiKToR
09-28-2005, 12:48 AM
This was from previous post but it got buried with question about linux so here the question by itself.

My specs are as follows for the Tech Heads:
2.8 GHz P4 HT
1GB OCZ DDR 400 Dual Channel
WinXP Pro SP2
Geforce 6800 Ultra Extreme (Softquaded FX 4000) 425Mhz GPU 1.1GHz Ram
2 x 74 GB WD Raptors SATA
60GB WD 7200
160 WD 7200 (formerly a WD external but the case power stopped functioning)
MSI 865PE LS Rev2


Parking in driveways, driving in parkways, and parking drives.

My First Question pertains to hard drives namely my former USB external 160GB from Western Digital. When I initially got this machine it had the above mentioned raptors and the 60gig HD. Windows was loaded on the 60 while the other were for video editing and extra data. My 160 Gig was in a new enclosure I bought to replace the broken one that it came with. So I decided, being an animator and visual FX student/enthusiast. that I wanted my 60gig as my external and my 160 gig as my program drive. So I made the switch loaded up windows got drivers working and SP2 Installed and after a while I noticed windows completely freezing, no mouse movement or nothing. This would happpen regardless of what I was doing, so I checked the hardware, fans still working, temps all look good. So I assume corrupted install and reformat and start over. This time I stayed with SP1 because I never got around to SP2. My system began freezing again this time I began to notice a click coming from my tower. The sound was my hard drive's read/write head parking basically shutting down. The noise it made was the same that it would make if the system was shutting down or going on standby. Usually within a few seconds of the click windows had frozen. This drve has run like a champ for a year and a half and still contiues to work as an external so it can't be the drive, and with my 60gig back in my tower my system does not crash. So I assume it's a problem with windows and its 137 GB limit in software. WinXP has a limit of 137GB for a single drive until SP1 then through a registry edit you go above the 137GB limit I followed the directions and got drive to read as 160 (149 actual) but alas the crash still happens.

So I was wondering since we all generally have a ton of hard drive space, has anybody ever had this problem? If so did you ever figure out a workaround?
pgp_protector
09-28-2005, 12:58 AM
Sounds like you may of had a bad install of win.

I've use it on 200G+ HDs with no problem, BUT what I did was re-burned my WindowsXP Install Disk with SP2 Preinstalled.

Check out http://unattended.msfn.org/beginner/intro.htm
and that site has some info on how to create SP2 slipstreamed XP install media, works great, also when you re-install, you are safer right off the bat, and if you follow the advance guide, you can clean up your windows install, and more.
lots
09-28-2005, 01:03 AM
I've never had trouble accessing my hard drives (larger than 137 GB) in windows before. All my large drives seem to be performing just fine. That clicking you are hearing generally means drive failure. The OS drive is somewhat more sensitive to bad sectors in a hard drive than a secondary slave drive would be. This is because many of the OS functions are run from the primary disk, even if you use a separate disk/array for the page file. Thus, if you've got some bad sectors on your disk, this will cause problems. Since you are able to use your 160GB drive in an enclosure, try to do a scan disk on it to ensure that there are no errors. If there are, I'd suggest backing all the data up on that disk.

The clicking is usually referred to as the click of death.
RiKToR
09-28-2005, 09:01 AM
No errors on any of my drive using scan disk nor WD proprietary checking tool. I may try modding my XP install to XP + SP2 or partitioning the drive, as well as maybe running linux. I have seen this problem widely reported on the internet just no solutions, just the suggestion that it is and error with the drive.
Marzocchi
09-28-2005, 10:02 AM
I too was missing 72 gb on my 200 hardrive but were able to solve it by first of all enable LAB-48 in the BIOS and then you'll have to partionate (?) free space to acses the rest of the drive. But your motherboard must handle S-ata 133.

If you need anymore help, send me a PM, and I'll try to explain better.

Good luck
lots
09-28-2005, 12:51 PM
Many modern implimentations of ATA100 (note the lack of S :P) feature LBA48, but LBA-48 wasnt made standard until ATA133. So check the bios like suggested to make sure LBA 48 mode is enabled. If you have an ATA133 controller, then you are definately going to be able to fully address the size of the HD.
RiKToR
09-28-2005, 04:39 PM
Yeah, I flashed to the latest bios (it said the latest bios fixed the problem of the 137GB cap) and enbled 48 BIT LBA in windows and it seemed to work for a few hours, then the next day it crashed again. Still no errors when checked. Could be because it wasn't enabled during the format or because it was the original release of XP. I know this drive works it was spinning in the usb enclosure all night with no parking head.
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